Marijuana Legalization More Popular Than Obama or Romney in Colorado

Amendment 64, which would legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol in Colorado, continues to hold a narrow lead. The most recent SurveyUSA poll for the Denver Post found that 48 percent plan to vote for the initiative while 43 percent plan to vote against it.

As expected, the polling has tightened up as we get close to election day. The previous SurveyUSA/Denver Post poll from September found Amendment 64 leading 51 percent yes to 40 percent no.

Interestingly, this is the second recent poll of Colorado that found more voters are currently planning to support marijuana legalization than support either of the major presidential candidates. This same SurveyUSA poll of the presidential race in Colorado has Mitt Romney at 46 percent, President Obama at 45 percent, and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson at 2 percent.

The University of Denver poll from last week also found that Amendment 64 is more popular than either major party candidate. It found 50 percent of likely voters planning to back the marijuana legalization initiative. By comparison, the poll found only 47 percent were planning to vote for Obama and 43 percent for Romney.

The Presidential race in the Colorado is currently very close and features several minor candidates. It is likely whichever candidate wins will end up doing so with only a plurality, just under 50 percent. That means there is the real possibility that Amendment 64 could not only narrowly win this November, but it could do so with a greater share of the vote than any presidential candidate.

Jon Walker

Jonathan Walker grew up in New Jersey. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006. He is now living in the Washington DC area. He created a politics and policy blog, The Walker Report (http://jwalkerreport.blogspot.com/).